


Fortune

by GoodOldBaz



Category: Agatha Christie's Poirot (TV), Poirot - Agatha Christie, Poirot - All Media Types
Genre: Arguing, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gift Fic, Not Serious, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 16:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18167303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoodOldBaz/pseuds/GoodOldBaz
Summary: Hastings finds himself experiencing some new, and not altogether unpleasant emotions towards his friend’s secretary, Miss Lemon.





	Fortune

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t usually write Hastings/Miss Lemon fanfic, but I wrote this ages ago as a gift for a friend who shipped them. Not to be taken too seriously (cause I actually ship Hastings with his wife, and Miss Lemon with Japp)

“Captain Hastings! I have told you a thousand times not to touch my filing!”  
Felicity Lemon stood at the doorway to the sitting room with a pile of disheveled papers clutched in her hands. Her eyebrows were arched in anger and her pale face was flushed. I could feel myself shrinking at the very sight of her.  
“I, er…” I sat up quickly from where I had been lying on the sofa. I knew I was in deep trouble. “You see, I couldn’t get a hold of you. I tried calling!”  
“I was already on my way,” she growled. “What on earth would make you do this?”  
She held up the papers and gestured toward her little office. I cringed.  
“Yes, I, I know it’s a disaster, but –”  
“A disaster is an understatement!” she hissed. “It could take me weeks to get it back in order. Is it impossible for you to not destroy my filing every time you touch it?”  
I felt guilty, and at her words a bit hurt, but I also wanted to defend myself.  
“Well then,” I said with a scowl, standing from the sofa. “I was going to offer to help you clean up, but I suppose you’d rather I didn’t, since I destroy everything I touch.”  
I walked toward the door, brushing my shoulder against her a little harder than I ought as I passed her in the little hall.  
“Oh no you don’t, Captain Hastings,” she said in a cold tone. I’d never heard her quite so angry before. Her tone was tempered now, but she still sounded furious. “I am not going to allow you to ruin the filing I’ve worked so hard to perfect, and then leave me here to fix it all. You’re going to help me put it all back where it belongs.”  
“Well why do you have to make it so confusing to begin with?” I asked sharply. We had had this argument a million times before, and I was simply tired of it. “If you filed like a normal human being instead of like some machine I wouldn’t have to wreck it every time I needed something when you were away.”  
As soon as I spoke I regretted it. She took a step back, looking at me with wide eyes. I believe I would have hurt her less had I struck her with my own hand.  
“Oh, oh Miss Lemon, I’m so sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn’t mean that, I…” My words caught in my throat and died there. I didn’t know what to say.  
Without a word she walked past me into her office. With her back still towards me she took off her hat and laid it with her purse upon the table. She took the pile of papers in her hand and laid them on top of one of the cabinets and began to file. A feeling like led sat in the pit of my stomach. I took a few steps towards her.  
“I’d like to help you, if I could,” I said slowly.  
“Don’t you take another step in here, Arthur Hastings,” she said sharply, whirling around towards me. It was the first time I’d ever heard her say my first name. Somehow, it made me feel even worse. “I don’t want you hurting it even further.”  
If she had said “I don’t want you hurting me even further” it believe it would have been more accurate. I opened my mouth, wishing I could apologize away what had just passed between us, but no words came out. I didn’t know what to do. She turned around slowly and got back to her work. I felt sick. At last I caught a sudden surge of courage to do something I’d never even thought of doing before. I don’t know why the idea came into my head, and I’ve even less idea why I acted on it. I moved forward and stopped just behind her, putting my hand on her shoulder. She spun round quickly so that our noses were only inches apart. I thought for a moment she was going to cry out and pull away, or even slap me, but for some reason, I think to both our surprise, she did not.  
“Miss Lemon,” I said slowly. We were so close together that I could feel her breath on my nose. My stomach churned uneasily. “I’m really terribly sorry,” I continued after a moments pause. “I am terribly sorry ruined your filing system and strew papers all about, and I had absolutely no right to insult you and your system. Especially not to insult you. I’ve no doubt that your filing system is truly brilliant and I am just too thick to understand it.”  
She gave me a look that told me that that was very likely the truth, but she said nothing. I continued.  
“I don’t want to fight with you, and, if you’ll have me, I’ll do my very best to follow your orders to the letter to put things back the way they were. If you’d rather I didn’t, well then, I’m very sorry again that I caused you this extra work.”  
My hand had somehow, I’ve no idea how, ended up round her waist, and in a way I was rather mystified by why I had not removed it. As I looked into her vivid blue eyes I felt strangely thankful that she had not. After a moment she let out a little sigh and looked away from me.  
“You’re forgiven, and if you would like to help me, I suppose that you are welcome,” she said at last. “As long,” she added, “As you do not do anything without my first telling you to do so.”  
I felt my heart skip a beat. “Then let’s get started!” I smiled.  
She smiled back at me and turned back to her cabinet. I felt an odd sense of disappointment as her move caused my hand to fall away from her. I shrugged off the strange feeling. It must just be nerves. It had to be. This was, after all, Miss Lemon.  
For the next few hours we worked tirelessly to put everything back into order. It turned out to be far more of a mess than I had even realized. We worked so long, in fact, that Poirot returned from a doctor’s visit and left again for a dinner appointment, leaving us still working until it was dark. At last we finally and, as I leaned back against the desk, wiping my forhead, I realized that I was very hungry. I thought she must be as well, so I worked up some courage and invited her to join me at a little Indian place I fancied. Rather to my surprise, she agreed with no need for convincing.  
We had a quiet dinner and talked a little. We were both a bit worn out from our days’ work, I think. When we had finished I offered to walk her home since now that it was dark, I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of her walking alone to her flat, even if it was just a few blocks away. As we walked, I offered her my arm, as any gentleman should, and she took it, as any lady would. It was a nice feeling, her little hand in the crook of my arm. As we walked quietly, I reached up my other hand and placed it on top of hers. She did not move it, and so neither did I. It felt, I must admit, rather nice. I thought to myself that it had to mean nothing. We were friends, when we weren’t spatting. Nothing More.  
As we walked I looked up into the sky and sighed. It was a lovely, warm night, but there was just enough breeze to blew the clouds back so that the stars were visible.  
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked, turning to look at the lady who walked beside me.  
She glanced upward. “The stars can tell us many things,” she said gently.  
“Is that so?” I asked. “I didn’t know. What kind of things?”  
“Things about the future, mainly,” she replied.  
I turned away from her for a moment. I wondered what my future held.  
“The future in general,” I said after a pause, “Or can you learn things about your own future specifically?”  
“A bit of both,” she said, glancing up again. She stopped suddenly and turned towards me. “This is my flat,” she said, motioning towards a little green door along the row of houses to our right.  
“Oh.” I felt a little disappointed. I didn’t want to leave yet.  
“Would you like to come in a moment?” she asked. “I could show you my collection of books on reading the night sky.”  
I jumped eagerly at the chance to spend a moment longer with her. “I would love to,” I replied.  
She smiled and moved up to the door, taking a key out of her purse and letting us into a long, neat little hall. She hung up her own hat and then took mine and placed it beside it.  
“Come along this way,” she said, leading me through the dark hall, up a flight of stairs, and into her flat. She turned on a lamp and I saw two cats, one dark gray and one white, lying together on the sofa. They looked rather like a yin and yang curled up as they were. I smiled.  
“What are their names?” I asked.  
“Aquila and Aries,” she replied. “You may not believe it but they’re brother and sister. Their mother was white and I believe their father was gray. Their mother, Cassiopeia, was my own cat. She got out one night and, well...”  
She flushed. I grinned playfully. “One thing lead to another, aye?”  
“There was a stray gray that lived nearby at the time. I tried to adopt him but he wanted no part of me, only Cassiopeia. She only had these two, which is odd, don’t you think?”  
“Er, yes, I suppose,” I responded, having absolutely no idea if it was actually odd or not. “They’re very lovely,” I added, scratching one of them behind the ear. It started purring and rolled over onto its back.  
“He likes you,” she smiled.  
I smiled back and took a seat beside the little critter, rubbing its stomach. Miss Lemon moved toward her bookshelf and took down two books. With a smile, she walked toward the sofa where I sat and paused. I wasn’t sure exactly how to make room for her with the cats lying as they were. I hesitated a moment and tried to push the little animals to one side. It made a little room, and I scooted over. I didn’t feel particularly as if there was enough room, and I thought perhaps I’d have the push the cats even further, when to my surprise Miss Lemon sat down beside me and placed the book upon my lap. The cushion dipped a bit as she sat, and we were pushed together slightly. I shivered. But I thought, well, it must have been something I ate. I couldn’t be really feeling this – for Miss Lemon. I moved my arm to make room for our shoulders and she leaned into the little curve of my side. At first I felt my body tense. What was she doing? It wasn’t that I didn’t like it. I liked it very much. But I couldn’t imagine what on earth had prompted her to relax herself so much. Or what had prompted me to like the idea of her cuddled up next to me so much. I hesitated and slowly, ever so slowly, put my arm around her shoulder. She adjusted slightly under the weight of my arm, but rather than moving away like I feared she might, she leaned her body even closer against mine. She reached out her hand and opened the book she had placed on my lap.  
“Look here,” she said, pointing to an illustration of a constellation.  
She began to explain something about how close attention to the movement of that particular constellation could help with knowing about something or other, but I’m afraid I didn’t entirely understand. My eyes didn’t leave her as she spoke. I loved the excitement in her face, her passion – those lovely arched eyebrows and big blue eyes full of enthusiasm. I’d never realized before just how beautiful she was.  
I moved my arm a little and pulled her closer. She glanced up at me and rested her hand on my leg. My heart was in my throat.  
“Would you like me to read your palm?” she asked. “I could tell you your fortune?”  
I nodded and smiled. But there, sitting so close to this woman, this woman that, despite what I had been trying to tell myself all night, I realized I cared for deeply, I didn’t need anyone to tell me my fortune. I knew I was the luckiest man on earth.


End file.
